Minutes Friends of the Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges

April 19, 2017 Meeting Agenda Refuge Headquarters

Present: Board Members at headquarters: Libby Cagle, Bill Dummitt, Peg Hall, Russ Hall, Jim Hoy, Kit

Lane, Doug Maple, Roger McDaniels, John McPherson, Debbie Meeks, Linda Tyson, Margie VanLandingham

Board Members attending by phone: Debbie Jordan, Dan Kline, Maria Sgambati

Refuge Manager: Andrew Gude Guest: Belinda Nettles 1. The meeting was convened at 10 a.m. by Russ 2. Agenda adoption was moved, seconded, passed. 3. Vista developments and survey of Board members

John provided a photo overview of the Vista property and explained the current status. Ownership of the property has been conveyed to the Refuge by the previous owners, two sisters who continue to hold life tenancy. The Friends have previously stated willingness to undertake planning for its use when the Refuge receives full right to its use. The three parties who would be interested in the planning are the family members with the life estate, the Refuge, and the Friends. In preparing to move ahead with a conceptual plan for its eventual use, a first step would be to reach agreement among the three interested parties on that eventual use. In talking to each of the parties, John learned that the sole use that has been put forward is some version of a Visitor Contact Facility. If there is already agreement on the desired use, we could move ahead on the preparation of a conceptual plan including graphical and narrative components. After discussion of possible uses, the Board reached consensus that the property be used as a visitor contact area with possible additional uses compatible with visitor contact, such as environmental education, interpretive services, and nature appreciation.

A motion was made, seconded and passed that Friends supports the use of the Vista property as a visitor contact area.

The family has told John they like the idea of a visitor center and have no other ideas for the use of the property. He will ask for a letter from the family to that point. Andrew said the Refuge is fully on board with the Visitor Station idea and has no conflicting ideas. The Refuge will provide a statement to that effect. John believes we need professional help with preparation of the conceptual plan. He identified Belinda Nettles as a possible consultant and she attended the meeting to get a sense of the project. Maria proposed that Friends apply for a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to support the planning project.

4. Volunteering

Bill reported on a meeting he and Debbie led which was well attended despite short notice and conflicting events. The primary issue was the possibility of Friends providing volunteers to regularly and reliably cover visitor contact at the Refuge headquarters several times a week, especially during the winter season. Several attendees were interested in the program. Working with Refuge staff members, Friends could provide training and scheduling. A volunteer coordinator would be needed and was not identified at the meeting. Andrew reported that hours of heaviest need are between 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. The Refuge will recruit an onsite, camper-volunteer who could participate several hours a week. Having visitor contact service on weekends would be particularly welcome. Andrew plans to provide a position description for the front desk visitor contact duties. The volunteers would work in the log cabin at the front desk. In order for them to be able to be there when staff are not present, such as on weekends, the Refuge would get them government badges. Debbie demonstrated the Neon Volunteer Management module which she has now set up. Roger’s orientation for the Pepper Busting program might serve as a model for orientation for this Visitor Contact program.

5. Nomination of new Board member

Russ reported that the Nomination Committee recommends the appointment of Mackenzie Russell to the Board. He provided an overview of her qualifications, which the committee members had reviewed. They also had ascertained that she would be willing to serve if asked.

A motion to appoint Mackenzie Russell to the Board of Directors was made, seconded, and passed unanimously.

6. Minutes and Treasurer’s Report Approval of the Minutes of the March 2017 Board Meeting and acceptance of April Treasurer’s Report were made, seconded and passed. 7. Refuge report

• Andrew would like to have us invite Neal Dunn’s staff to visit the Refuge

• The Refuge is seeking authority and an approved procedure for managing lands that are owned by a nonprofit. This concerns management of Section 29 [the Earl M. Starnes Conservation Area in the Cedar Key backwater]. A precedent has come to his attention and he is hopeful they will have something available soon.

• SRWMD is working with Refuge to understand the hydrology of the roads and dikes, with an eye toward returning the flow of water to something closer to the flow before the timber companies built the roads.

• The Refuge is in a FIRE SEVERITY code, but luckily because there has been no threat of lightening, there is no ignition source

• Under current restrictions, it is difficult to initiate strong relationships with private land owners who might welcome the opportunity to provide land to the Refuge through land management agreements linked to easements and similar funding sources. Until the Refuge has expanded acquisition boundaries, discussions will be limited.

• No birds are nesting at Seahorse Key, therefore the Refuge is seeking a temporary opening of the waters for the rest of the season. Beaches will remain closed.

• Andrew is working with State to close the waters and beaches of Snake Key because birds are nesting there.

• An intern funded by NCBS will be working with the Refuge to develop self-guided paddling around Cedar Key.

• Jim Wortham took an FWS plane to the Dixie County airshow as an outreach activity.

• YCC will be working on construction projects over the summer.

• Mackenzie Russell has been provided a special use permit to perform necropsies on the Refuge.

8. Meeting with Leaders of the Friends of the other Refuges within the North Florida

Refuge Complex Russ reported on this April 11 meeting. A written summary is in the Friends dropbox and attached. Two possible outcomes from the meeting:

• Expansion and formalization of the Friends Advocacy Committee. Discussion included how to create and vet a shared narrative of the role and value of the Refuges in the Complex

• Potential creation of a Friends Development Committee

• Jay sent a written advocacy report which is attached.

9. Peer to Peer Workshop – June 8-10 Ding Darling NWR Russ described the workshop and its value to the Friends.

A motion was made, seconded, and passed that a line item for Board Development be added to the budget and include $1,000 to allow for reimbursement of expenses related to professional development activities such as the Peer to Peer Workshop 10. SRWMD will meet in Cedar Key

In conjunction with this meeting on May 4 & 5, Andrew is willing to take the Suwannee River Water Management Board and staff to Atsena Otie and Lukens Tract. Russ urged members to attend the open meetings at the Cedar Key Community Center

11. Clyde Butcher The renowned nature photographer will visit Cedar Key in mid August. Linda is willing to help show him around the Refuge and Doug can help if water tours are needed. Andrew offered that the Refuge boat can also be available and reminded that a Special Use permit may be needed.

12. Committee reports

Membership, Communications, and Inventory committees gave summaries of their written reports which are attached

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 12 Noon.

Communications/Membership Team Report April 2017

Meetings Communications/Membership Team met before the April meeting. MEMBERSHIP

• To encourage and enable member involvement and engagement, two meetings were held to draft a Friends Visitor Contact Program and brainstorm about other programs we could put in place to provide members with opportunities to strengthen refuge outreach, accessibility, flora and fauna inventories, and resource preservation.

• Debbie activated the Volunteer module in our database so that members can access Calls for Workers and can record their hours.

• A letter was sent to the 13 members for whom we do not have email addresses requesting that they provide them. Two responded. COMMUNICATIONS Brochures and Presentations

• Barnett-McCormick Creek Paddling brochure is finished.

• Dixie Mainline brochure is at the printer

• Cedar Key kiosk is in process.

• Following the presentation championed by Debbie and presented by Jason Coates, County Commissioner Mark Hatch requested a meeting with Andrew, Larry, and Jason to review ways in which the county could assist with maintaining the Dixie Mainline so as to assure public safety and accessibility of the road to the public. News Briefs A new template was developed and tested in April to ease the formatting burden of

News Brief layout. Modifications will be made before May’s News Brief. April News Brief

• Sent April 6 to 533 email addresses. Opened 409 times by 204 email addresses (38%).

• Linked on our Facebook page, homepage and newsletters page of our website

• Readers clicked to the story 24 times. Most clicked – o Annual Meeting Report o Dixie Mainline Talk o Board Member List o Advocacy and Info links

Annual Meeting Reminder

• Sent February 25 to 495 email addresses. Opened 519 times by 182 email addresses (37%).

• Linked on our Facebook page, homepage and newsletters page of our website

• Readers clicked to the story 51 times. Most clicked – o Trail guides and brochures o Dixie Mainline Presentation o Annual Meeting photos and presentations o Butterfly Primer o Brazilian peppers in medicine

Facebook Page We have 448 fans.

8 Posts so far in April, 7 by Maria and the other by Peg and about 125 Shares and Likes 1400 Number of people to whom our posts were “served” by Facebook in April so far.

The number is double all of last month. Friends Website

• 1 post so far this month

• About 2,300 visitors in the past month. About 2,000 the previous month.

• About 10,400 pageviews in the past month, 9100 last month.

Team members - Peg, Debbie, Kit, Maria

North Florida Refuge Complex Friends Meeting

St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge April 11, 2017, 11 AM to 2 PM

Notes from the Friends of Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys Contingent Attendees Friends of St. Mark’s Wildlife Refuge: Mary Smallwood, President Friends of St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge: Lisa Johnston, President, Nancy Stuart,

President Emeritus, Susan Cerulean, Vice President and President-elect Friends of the Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges: Russ Hall,

President, Bill Dummitt, President-elect, Peg Hall, Communications Committee Chair

The Meeting

Sue Cerulean, who developed the agenda, briefly stated the purpose of the meeting. Our goal is to align and strengthen the advocacy efforts of our Friends groups on behalf of our Refuge Complex. This, she noted, is particularly timely in light of looming threats to the Department of the Interior budget, which could severely impact the management of our Refuges.

She began the meeting by asking attendees to describe their Refuges and to explain what qualities caused each of us to become committed to our Friends organizations.

The introductions proved to be informative and rewarding for all in revealing commonalities and differences among the four Refuges. They also highlighted differences among the Friends groups, how they see their roles, and how they operate in supporting their Refuges.

The 30-year old Friends of St. Mark’s is a large, well established, and sprawling organization, with many volunteers, about 500 Friends members, generous donors, and standing committees in such areas as development and advocacy. The Refuge serves a large visitor base and sees that as one of the Refuge’s significant contributions to the region. At least some of St. Mark’s volunteers are managed by Refuge staff.

Because of its isolation, St. Vincent has few visitors, and the Friends group has a comparatively small member base of about 100, but is relatively more active than its counterparts, particularly in successfully advocating for St. Vincent through political activism. Friends of St. Vincent recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of its founding.

Both St. Mark’s and St. Vincent Friends groups have strong ties with Florida State University.

The Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys Friends organization is 16 years old, and fits between the other two in size with about 250 members. It is seeking to increase its activities in the areas such as physical support of their Refuges through volunteers and the kind of advocacy in which St. Vincent Friends is focused and active.

After a short lunch break the discussion shifted to advocacy and sought the experiences of participants in effective ways to keep our Refuges from bearing the brunt of budget cuts. Among the alternatives discussed were reaching out to our members through social media, reaching out to local and state officials, directing advocacy to Senators and Representatives or the Secretary of the Interior, advocating for the Refuges through op./ed. writing for local papers, requesting members to make calls or visits to elected officials, joining groups preparing petitions, or participating in fly-ins to congressional offices in Washington, D.C.

In response to a suggestion from the National Wildlife Refuge Association’s weekly Action Alert, discussion turned to possibly asking city and county commissioners to pass a resolution requesting that the Congress provide full funding for the refuges and other public lands to meet their statutory obligation to provide the local entities with payment in lieu of taxes. Although refuges are supposed to provide an amount annually to offset the property taxes they do not pay, the program from which these monies come is poorly funded and the amount going to local taxing authorities is much less than it should be. This effort was discussed as a possible way to document and build support for refuges in local political and community circles.

The final hour of the meeting was devoted to a conference call with Desiree Sorenson-Groves, Vice President for Government Affairs at NWRA. She began the conversation by asking if Andrew was with us, reminding us again that our Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys refuge manager is well recognized in refuge advocacy and representation circles.

Mary asked her what it is like in DC these days. Desiree said it is even more chaotic than it probably seems from outside of town. She believes that the healthcare debate and the fact that the Republicans were unable to overturn Obamacare has fractured the Republican Party, shifting some power to the Democrats. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan must either work with the right-wing Freedom Caucus, thereby angering more moderate Republicans, or with the Democrats, thereby angering the Freedom Caucus.

Desiree talked about our good fortune in having Neal Dunn as our representative. He is a first-term Congressman in a swing, purple district. He is not in a safe seat. He needs us to give him documentation, narrative, and strategic positioning on issues that will resonate with voting constituencies on both sides. Few districts have a representative as poised to listen. She recommended that we meet with him while Congress is in recess and build a strong relationship with his local office staff.

St. Vincent Friends already have brought his local office staffers to their Refuge and opened the doors to building a relationship with them. They are happy to help the rest of us meet with them too. Friends of Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys also has a contact with Dunn’s office. It came about through a Dixie county commissioner who attended a recent presentation about a critical road on the Refuge. The presentation was arranged by Board Member Debbie Meeks and given by Jason Coates of the Lower Suwannee Refuge staff.

The St. Vincent Friends had been thinking that a trip to Washington to lobby directly would be a good next step. Desiree advised that working with the local office staffers and

meeting with Dunn in the district, rather than in DC, would likely be as effective, or even more effective.

Desiree suggested that Friends need to have a Twitter account and use it to thank or express disapproval with our Senators and Representatives. Enthusiasm was not high for the idea.

She mentioned that our senators are so entrenched in their positions that there is little hope that Rubio will ever be an ally on environmental issues or that Nelson will ever cease to be a friend of the environment. Therefore, attention to our Congressman and those in nearby districts is a better use of time. She did not advise spending much effort on Representative Yoho.

Desiree has met briefly with Secretary Zinke, at a welcoming reception. He told her that he has no interest in turning public lands over to private interests or to the states. However, he will strongly consider turning management of them over to states.

She believes that it will be at least two months before a Director of Fish and Wildlife is named and confirmed, and no policy changes regarding public lands will result until a Director is in place.

President Trump’s “Skinny Budget” (an outline without details) will be out around mid-May. She expects a 12% cut to Refuges for the rest of FY17, all of which will need to be taken between whenever it is put in place and the end of September. She expects the cut for FY18 to be larger. The Continuing Resolution which is keeping government open expires before the end of April. She expects Congress to pass a one month extension, and then probably another extension to last until the end of the year on September 30, essentially having passed no FY17 budget. The prospects for the Refuge System in the President’s proposed FY18 budget will be dire.

Nancy asked Desiree to explain the interest in having local political councils support the expansion of the fund to provide payment in lieu of taxes. She gave us a history of the program and suggested that it could be a way to demonstrate local support for the refuges. Passing a resolution supporting the expanded funding would support their local constituents by supporting the refuges, so it was a win-win. Another question concerned the Land and Water Conservation Fund, formerly used for acquisition of conservation lands. Desiree suggested that it is a lost cause.

The call ended with appreciation on both sides for the time to together. The meeting ended quickly thereafter with participants expressing pleasure at the

outcome and hopes to have another get together in the relatively near future. The visitors expressed gratitude to Mary Smallwood for her efforts in hosting the group at St. Mark’s.

April 2017 Advocacy report-Jay Bushnell

• Update on The Gulf of Mexico-Forest to Sea Project by Lauren Day of The Conservation Fund. You may remember that her project was funded at a $3 million level from the Regional Conservation Partnership Program which was not the full funding requested. The Friends had partnered with an in kind $1000 contribution with Suwannee River Clean ups. She is now resubmitting an update proposal with objective of full funding. The Friends in kind contribution will be transferred to this new proposal.

• We need to encourage everyone to contact our Congressional delegation about the 12% cut in funding for the Refuge System. While Senator Nelson is solidly in our corner, it would not hurt to acknowledge his continued support. Senator Rubio, well not sure the time is worth it, but it might help to acknowledge how he has been beat up by his own party-Russia hacking or his early immigration stance come to mind. I believe the best opportunity is with Representative Dunn. His aid, Brian Schubert at least acknowledged my letter.

March 30, 2017

The Honorable Neal Dunn

U.S. House of Representatives

423 Cannon House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515-0902

Dear Congressman Dunn:

Last week, President Trump released his Fiscal Year 2018 Proposed Budget, calling for a 12

percent cut to the Department of the Interior to help offset a recommended $54 billion increase in

defense spending. A budget cut this aggressive would have devastating impacts to our already

underfunded National Wildlife Refuge System (Refuge System), and I urge you to ignore the

President's budget request and instead fund the Refuge System at an appropriate amount.

Congress's infamous sequestration of 2013 has already crippled the refuge system.

America's Refuge System is the largest network of lands and waters dedicated to wildlife

conservation on Earth. These public lands conserve our nation's wildlife and provide access for

American's to enjoy outdoor recreational activities like hunting, fishing, wildlife watching,

photography, environmental education, and interpretation.

If the 12 percent recommended cuts to the Department of the Interior are uniformly distributed

across all programs, the Refuge System would experience a $58 million reduction to already

insufficient funding levels. This severe cut would drastically reduce the refuge system ability to

economically and socially benefit the areas served. Clearly, robbing Peter to pay Paul represents

a flaw in understanding how our economic system works.

As your constituent who values the Refuge System, I urge you to work with your congressional

colleagues to ensure the National Wildlife Refuge System is not subjected to extreme budget cuts

that would prevent the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from conserving our nation's wildlife for

current and future generations of Americans.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Jay Bushnell, 15639 NW 46th Lane Chiefland, FL 32626

• I also believe we all should contact our State representative to encourage them to fund Florida Forever as required by Amendment 1 of the Florida Constitution. Here is my latest attempt.

Honorable Rob Bradley,

We live on the Suwannee River in a community called Fowler’s Bluff in Levy County. Levy, Dixie, Taylor and Jefferson counties make up what is often called, The Big Bend Region or the Forgotten Coast. As I suspect you know we live in one of the least populated areas of Florida and because of that, one of the least represented. That has its positive sides. We are not dealing with the over development problems of South Florida.

Now have said that, the economy and character of the region depends on protecting the natural resources. The Conservation Fund study of 2015, Demographic, economic, and growth initiative analysis: Big Bend Region of Florida, emphasized this. The use of conservation easements is a powerful tool to help protect the Big Bend Region. Florida Forever funding and RFLPP should be a vital part of this preservation.

Sincerely,

Jay Bushnell 15639 NW 46th Lane

Chiefland FL 32626

• On a more positive note, there was an article in the Chiefland Citizen that the College of Central Florida is offering a Timber Harvesting Equipment Program. The program is being offered with the help of two grants. One $11,000 grant from The Conservation Fund. The other is a $200,000 Grant from Lyme Timber Company. The development of the timber industry was one of the major economic suggestions by the 2015 study on the Big Bend Region by The Conservation Fund.